About the roleWe’re looking for a designer who understands that packaging is a salesperson standing silently on a shelf. If a shopper doesn’t pick it up in three seconds, you’ve lost. This role is for someone who designs for the grab, the shelf presence, and the register ring.What You'll DoShelf Impact Design: Engineer packaging that wins the pick. Command attention in a crowded planogram, ensure color blocking reads from eight feet away, and create a billboard effect across a facing of four units.Structural & Retail Engineering: Design for real-world retail constraints (pegboard, endcap, pallet display, clamshell, blister pack, folding carton). Know how each format performs in each retail environment and how to design within them.End-to-End Production: Take a concept from sketch to technical dieline, through 3D rendering, to print-ready files sent to domestic or overseas factories.The In-Store Experience: Design the full journey from shelf to home—include inserts, instruction cards, and unboxing moments that drive delight and earn five-star word of mouth.Technical Compliance: Own UPC/barcode placement, country of origin, regulatory copy, and material certifications (FSC, recycled content), plus retailer-specific requirements from buyers like Walmart, Target, or Home Depot.Retail Partner Integration: Work with sales and marketing to ensure packaging meets planogram specs, buyer presentation decks, and any retailer-mandated structural requirements.What You Bring4+ years of hands-on retail packaging design with a portfolio that includes real shelf placements (not just digital mockups).Mastery of Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign) and 3D rendering tools (Dimension, KeyShot, or Blender).Retail IQ: understand planogram logic, how buyers evaluate a package submission, and how structural choices affect freight costs and shelf efficiency.Manufacturing fluency: can discuss GSM, flute types, spot UV, embossing, matte vs. glossy finishes, and minimum order quantities directly with factories.Category awareness: analyze competitors on shelf and identify the visual gaps worth owning.Extreme ownership: manage your own deadlines, talk to suppliers directly, and don’t wait to be handed a brief before you start solving problems.Nice to HaveExperience designing for major national retailers with documented planogram or POG submissions.Structural packaging engineering background.Copywriting skills for punchy, high-converting shelf copy.Photography skills to capture real-world asset photography for sell-in decks.Please Do Not Apply IfYou’ve never taken a project from dieline to mass production.Your portfolio is 100% digital renders with zero real shelf photos.You need a manager to double-check your bleed lines and barcode specs.You’ve never read a retail buyer’s packaging spec sheet.What Success Looks LikeShelf Velocity: Packaging redesigns that move product faster (sell-through rate and reorder frequency).Buyer Approvals: Submissions that pass retailer structural and compliance reviews the first time.Fewer Markdowns: Packaging that sells itself so buyers don’t need to discount to clear inventory.Speed to Market: Concept to production-ready files in days, not weeks.
